August Gissler

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August Gissler (* 9. September 1857 in Remscheid , † 8. August 1935 in New York City ) was a German adventurer and treasure hunter, who from 1889 to 1908 with brief interruptions on the Cocos Island lived, where he was from 1897 governor used was.

life and work

Gissler's destination was the church treasure of Lima, the golden Madonna, which is said to have been hidden on the island by Captain William Thompson around 1820 . Over the years, Gissler dug meter-long underground tunnel systems that can still be entered today despite numerous earthquakes. Gissler was certain of his cause, as he had two maps from two different sources that indicated the same location as the hiding place for the treasure. At the same time, Gissler was also looking for Benito Bonito's pirate treasure .

In 1897, the Costa Rican government appointed him the first and only governor of Coconut Island.

The funds for this search were mainly provided by investors who invested in the Cocos Plantation Company , which was founded for this purpose . Some settler families therefore lived together with Gissler on the island for the cultivation of tobacco. Gissler, who had been sworn in as the island's official governor, ended up living alone with his wife Mary on the island until he left her in 1908. Gissler was unsuccessful: in seventeen years he found only 33 doubloons on the beach of Wafer Bay on Coconut Island .

August Gissler died impoverished in New York five weeks before his 78th birthday on August 8, 1935, where he also found his final resting place.

literature

  • William BeebeCoconut - Treasure Island. In:  Reichspost , No. 344/1928 (XXXV. Year), December 12, 1928, p. 6 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rpt.
  • Georg Bremer: The secrets of the coconut island. Adventurers in search of the world's greatest pirate treasures . BoD, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-9655-2 .
  • August Gissler's legacy - my first expedition to Treasure Island. Coconut Island, December 1988 . In: Ina Knobloch: The Secret of Treasure Island. Robert Louis Stevenson and Coconut Island - on the trail of a myth . Mareverlag, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86648-097-1 , pp. 65-90.

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